Conservatives to Campaign on Education Gender Gap
At Wednesday 20th January’s meeting of South Gloucestershire’s Children and Young People Committee members were asked to read and comment on the new exam results statistics in schools.
Many of the results are encouraging, with across the board improvements in Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Key Stages 1-3. Performance at Key Stage 4 (16 years old, GCSEs) has dipped slightly, which is disappointing, however schools are improving. In 2010 only 44% of secondary schools in South Gloucestershire were judged to be ‘Good’ or better by Ofsted. This is now 62% and as our schools improve so will the achievement of South Gloucestershire’s young people.
Councillor Jon Hunt, Chairman of the Children and Young People Committee welcomed these improvements, but warned of the gap between boys’ and girls’ achievement.
Of the report, Cllr Hunt said: “There is some great news in here for education in South Gloucestershire. The dip in secondary school results is disappointing and clearly more work needs to be done on that, but we’ve had nearly a 50% increase in the number of ‘Good’ schools in South Gloucestershire since 2010, which gives me great hope for great improvement.
Where I do worry is the gap between boys and girls. This has been a national issue, but with increased attention on the digital sphere 2015 showed boys are beginning to catch up. However, we must make sure we are not complacent and that the gender gap continues to close. I am interested to explore this issue further and will be taking it up as a campaign to help our boys achieve as brilliantly as our girls.
We are ranked 6th in the country for girls’ reading at Key Stage 2, but only 51st for boys, for example. I would like to see the boys catch up!”